Linux for business use

All you ever need
What you get in the way of bundled applications will vary from one distro to another but there are common components.

Program development tools are almost universal, as is the inclusion of Samba to enable a Linux server to share files and printers on a Windows network. Apache is another virtually standard inclusion.

One of the most popular web servers on the internet, Apache gives you everything required to support a high-performance internet or intranet web server.

Most Linux distributions also include a variety of add-ons to provide support for Active Pages, PHP and other common web server technologies, such that it doesn’t matter whether you’re using Linux and Apache or Windows and IIS.

Expect to get a variety of email servers and SQL databases such as MySQL or PostGRE SQL and a lot more besides. However, don’t run away with the idea that you can simply install Linux and start using these applications. Some will be configured for you, but not all, and there’s often a fair amount of post-installation setup and management work required. You’d have to go through similar setup and learning work on a Windows server, and pay a lot more for the software than you do with open-source applications for Linux.

The real applications
There are lots of other Linux applications suitable for use by the small business. With Linux considered a mature platform, it’s unusual to find a developer without a Linux port of some of its products. This is especially true when it comes to the big-name vendors such as IBM, Novell, Oracle, SAP and others.

Smaller commercial developers also abound, with email and collaboration servers a popular offering. One example is the Gordano Messaging Suite (www.gordano.com), which we reviewed in 2006 and which can be hosted on Linux and Windows servers. Open-Xchange (www.open-xchange.com) and Zimbra (www.zimbra.com, recently acquired by Yahoo) can both be used instead of Microsoft Exchange.

You’ll also find content management packages, such as Joomla (www.joomla.org), which can be of help to the small business looking to set up and maintain its own website. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) packages such as SugarCRM (www.sugarcrm.com) are available too, together with masses of security tools written to run under Linux.

VMWare Server can also be run on Linux and Xen virtualisation is now available with most of the business distros. There’s a huge amount of community developed business software available too. It’s not all free, by any means, but it is out there and will often cost a lot less to deploy than Windows equivalents.

Linux as an alternative to the Windows desktop
Most small businesses view Linux as a server OS. However, it can also be employed instead of the more usual Windows desktop, with plenty of applications available, for those brave enough to give it a try.
Openoffice.org is a good example, offering functionality equivalent to the Microsoft Office suite - minus the hefty licensing fees.

There are no licences to buy with Openoffice.org and functionality is pretty much on a par with Office, with similar word processing, spreadsheet, presentation and database management programs, together with the usual spell checkers, charting and tools.

The look and feel is very Office-like too, the only drawback being the lack of ready-trained staff. Still, that’s not particularly hard to address and in a small business the savings could run into hundreds of pounds.

Neither should you worry about document standards. Documents created in Microsoft Office can be worked on using Openoffice.org and vice versa, with a huge range of compatible formats to choose from. And you can get Openoffice.org for Windows, and make savings even if you’re not running Linux.